Vatican City - Gallery of Maps and other masterpieces

The ceilings are works of art in the Vatican Museums too.

In addition to the Michelangelo’s Pieta within St. Peter’s Basilica, there are corridors and corridors of priceless objects within Vatican City.  We booked a tour with LivItaly expecting to be part of a tour group that would walk through the Vatican Museums, but in fact, Steven had inadvertently booked us for a one-on-one tour.  So we had our tour guide, the very capable Maria, all to ourselves.  She gave us the grand tour of the highlights of Vatican City, not just the Vatican Museums, dating from 1503, but the world’s largest church (St. Peter’s Basilica) and the world’s most famous chapel (Sistine).  We started at 8 a.m., an hour before the general public is admitted, and circled through a relatively uncrowded Sistine Chapel.  There we bent our heads skyward to view the famous ceiling, which I found hard to fully appreciate with my neck bent backward (we may visit the touring “Sistine Chapel Up Close” exhibit, making its way to Westfield malls across America, to see life size reproductions at eye level).  We also duly admired Michelangelo’s Last Judgment, which requires less contortions of the head. Both appear almost 3-D in person, and require hours of study (perhaps a lifetime) to fully appreciate.

Roselli's Crossing of the Reed Sea.  The "pillar of fire" has been transformed into well, a pillar. 

However, what I hadn’t expected, and certainly gets less attention, are the twelve massive frescoes on either side of The Last Judgment.  These were painted between 1481 and 1483 and cover stories from both the Old and New Testaments.  My eyes were drawn to The Crossing of the Reed Sea, by Roselli.  Roselli is quite competent, but he’s no Michelangelo.  The sea itself is either mud brown or blood red and resembles a wide ditch. In fact, the “drowning” Egyptian soldiers look as if they could reach out and touch Moses, who looks a little bored.  The Egyptian city in the background looks distinctly Italian and the “pillar of fire” in the middle of the culvert resembles an actual Roman pillar.  Meanwhile Miriam kneels by Moses with an Italian stringed instrument, an agonized expression on her face.  I seem to recall that in the Torah she is dancing and rejoicing at this juncture, probably with a tambourine.

Betsy with our gudie Maria in the map room

The other unexpected, but entirely delightful, treasure at Vatican City is the Gallery of Maps. Most sprint through this football field length gallery on the way to the Sistine Chapel.  But they shouldn’t, because this gallery is spectacular.  It was created by Egnazio Danti, a famous Venetian cartographer.  Over the course of just 2 years, he painted the whole of Italy, without drones, planes or other modern map mapping devices.  And he got it mostly right.  The maps are about 80% accurate.  Quite a feat for the 1580s. Maria told us that Italians are delighted to find their small villages pictured.  I can certainly attest that Venice is accurate, as we flew over the city as we landed. 

 

Danti's 16th Century map of Venice is amazingly accurate.